The objective of this research was to study the relationship between stillbirth and chemical exposure of pregnant workers. / A case control study was conducted among women working in three sectors: Health, Personal services and Agriculture, and Manufacturing industries. Two hundred and twenty-seven (227) stillbirths aged 20 weeks of gestation or more, were matched to two hundred and twenty-seven (227) livebirths, for mother's age, gravidity and socio-economic status. Chemicals were divided into ten (10) groups. Exposure was assessed by visits to the workplaces, telephone calls or extrapolations. Conditional logistic regression analyses were done. / Women working as hairdressers-beauticians$ sp+$ (O.R. 0,01 (0,00-0,34)) and those working in the garment industry* (O.R. 0,24 (0,08-0,77)) had significantly less stillbirths while women working in metal-electrical-chemical industries* (O.R. 5,11 (0,99-26,37)) had a significant excess of stillbirth. Exposure to pesticides/germicides, irrespective of the level or frequency$ sp+$ (O.R. 2,06 (1,15-3,68)), and occasional exposure to "miscellaneous" chemicals (other chemicals potentially fetotoxic)* (O.R. 12,07 (1,22-119,9)) showed a significant increased risk of stillbirth while exposure to a low level of metals$ sp+$ (O.R. 0,28(0,10-0,83)) showed a significantly lower risk of stillbirth. / Leatherworkers* (O.R. 2,59 (0,47-14,33)), women working in the textile industry$ sp+$ (O.R. 2,55 (0,42-15,41)), agricultural workers* (O.R. 3,88 (0,47-31,88)), women exposed to a moderate (2) level of metals$ sp+$ (O.R. 2,32 (0,59-9,10)) and those exposed to a high (3) level of solvents$ sp+$ (O.R. 2,49 (0,47-13,30)) had a non significant (P $>$ 0,05) increased risk of stillbirth. / The author proposes that ergonomic factors could be a confounder of the association between stillbirth and exposure to pesticides/germicides or metals. A study looking more closely at the association between stillbirth and ergonomic factors is therefore suggested. Because exposure of pregnant workers to elevated levels of chemicals is quite rare, further epidemiological studies should include more subjects. ftn$ sp+$: stillbirths aged 20 weeks of gestation or more. ftn*: stillbirths aged 28 weeks of gestation or more.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75883 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Goulet, Lise, 1953- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000910402, proquestno: AAINL52191, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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